NEW DORP -- Mayor Bill de Blasio came to Staten Island to celebrate Italian-American heritage, diversity and his fellow Democrats on the eve of St. Joseph's Day, and also put in a good word for Domenic M. Recchia Jr.'s congressional campaign.

The mayor attended the Richmond County Democratic Committee St Joseph's Day Dinner at La Strada Restaurant in New Dorp.

It was a night for Democrats -- and for Italian-Americans, whose city heritage Democratic Party Chair John Gulino referenced in introducing de Blasio.

"We had Joe DiMaggio in center field, Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall, Fiorello LaGuardia at City Hall -- and now we have you leading our city," Gulino told de Blasio.

The mayor let the full house know he'd brought a bit of LaGuardia back to City Hall with him.

"I wanna tell all proud Democrats in this room and all proud Italian-Americans in this room, when I got to City Hall they asked me, did I want to bring Fiorello LaGuardia's desk back into my office? And I said, 'You bet I do,'" he said to applause. "We liberated the desk and brought it back where it belongs!"

He heaped praise on Gulino, whom he said had for years urged de Blasio to listen to the people of Staten Island and whom he called "the most pure, honest, consistent advocate for this borough you'd ever hope to meet."

The event drew other big names in the Democratic Party -- City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James. Their remarks were closed to the press -- a media pool was allowed to witness only de Blasio's remarks.

The mayor said that Democrats, though they sometimes squabble, have been united on the Island under Gulino to fight for the middle class, those without opportunity and for the city's neighborhoods. That would be easier, he said, with a federal government on New York's side.

"And to have a federal government on our side again will take painstaking work," de Blasio said. "But the good news here in this borough is you can do something profound this November and send Domenic Recchia to Congress," de Blasio said to cheers.

Then he added: "Domenic M. Recchia Jr. -- look for him on your ballot."

Recchia, a Brooklynite, is set to run against Republican Rep. Michael Grimm for the seat that represents the Island and part of Brooklyn. De Blasio praised Recchia's work in the Council and on school boards.

"He will serve Staten Island so well, with such great energy," de Blasio said. "He cares about people."

De Blasio spoke about his own efforts to provide universal pre-k and after-school for children in middle school -- and touted lower crime in the city since he took office.

Then he waxed poetic about his family's Italian-American heritage. His grandmother, Anna, came from Grassano in Matera, Italy, around 1900, he said.

"She left and she came to New York City, and she believed something amazing would happen to her here," de Blasio said.

His grandfather Giovanni, meanwhile, came from Sant'Agata in Benevento, Italy, a few years later -- and they met and started a family and a business.

"I'm sure if you had said to them, if you had walked up to them one day and said, 'Guess what, your grandson is going to be mayor of New York City,' it probably would have sounded a little difficult to folks who had just arrived on these shores with a dream, that that could be possible," de Blasio said. "But it's true and that is the greatness of New York City, and that is the greatness of this country."

Recchia wasn't the only former Council colleague with whom de Blasio caught up at the dinner: Former councilman and congressman Michael McMahon took a seat right next to de Blasio, and the two seemed to be cracking jokes, including during Gulino's remarks about the party's diversity.

"Just look around this room, and I encourage you to look around this room right now, and look at our diversity," Gulino said.